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Updated: Jun 2, 2026

ACT1-CUP1 Assays Determine the Substrate-Specific Sensitivities of Spliceosomal Mutants in Budding Yeast
Published on: June 30, 2022
Transcriptional capacity limits copper resistance in yeast harboring highly expanded CUP1 arrays
Hiroaki Takesue1,2, Satoshi Okada1,3, Takashi Ito1,2
1Department of Biochemistry, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Fukuoka, Japan.
Abstract:
Copper resistance in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is primarily mediated by the tandemly arrayed metallothionein gene CUP1 . We analyzed eight isogenic strains harboring CUP1 arrays of varying lengths, including those artificially expanded beyond their natural ranges. CUP1 mRNA levels and copper resistance increased with copy number before reaching a plateau. Increased dosage of the transcriptional activator Cup2 partially mitigated the plateaued resistance in strains with intermediate, but not high, copy numbers. These findings indicate that CUP1 confers resistance dose-dependently until transcriptional capacity becomes limiting, suggesting a possible strategy for engineering extreme copper resistance.
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